


Romeo, O Romeo

by umihonoka



Category: Home Improvement (TV)
Genre: Gay Awakening, Gay Panic, Gen, Internalized Homophobia, Kissing, Prequel, Questioning, gay slur, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-28
Updated: 2019-08-28
Packaged: 2020-09-28 09:11:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20423486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/umihonoka/pseuds/umihonoka
Summary: Randy comes to a realization after some events at play practice.





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place during Season 5 Episode 23. Clearly, I changed things from the episode in order to make it about Randy being gay.  
This story is a prequel to one I'm currently writing, so if you like this one please leave a kudos or a comment.

It had been easy to convince Wilson to direct his school play of Romeo and Juliet, seeing as it has been a dream of his to direct something by Shakespeare. At first everyone was excited the production was back on, but soon they found Wilson had been overbearing and annoying to all the student actors. He made them do all these wacky warm-ups and acting practices, such as pretending they're a vegetable and bringing in kitchen utensils. Yeah, it had been rough at first, and all the kids hated Randy for getting a director who cared more about Shakespeare's meanings rather than practicing the actual lines. It almost made Randy quit, but he stuck with it, well mostly because his parents forced him to, but he was glad he did. Wilson finally calmed down after a chat with Tim over the fence. Tim told him he needed to calm down and focus on making sure the play was fun for the students so that is what he did at the next practice. That time they did not focus on analysis, or interpretations but just performed the scenes, and Wilson had them start at the romance scene. 

Randy was excited to finally be getting some actual acting in. He had practiced really hard to get this role in the play and he wanted to make the most of being the main character. He took center stage along with Sharon who was playing Juliet. They started with was the masquerade scene where Romeo and Juliet first met each other. They read their lines from their books back and forth to each other acting out the scene perfectly without interruption. 

“O then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do, they pray—grant thou, lest faith turn to despair” Randy recited. 

“Saints do not move, though grant for prayers’ sake.” Sharon read back taking a step closer to Randy, knowing how the scene plays out. 

“Then move not while my prayer’s effect I take. Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purg’d.” Randy readout of his book. After reading the lines he stood there staring at the directions given to him in the book. Kiss her. He looked up and stared at Sharon, and Sharon waited for him to move in closer and kiss her before reading her next line, but it didn’t happen. The two stood in uncomfortable silence for far too long before Wilson yelled to cut the scene. At that moment blood rushed to Randy’s face and he could hear murmurs from the other student actors off stage. He excused himself to go get a drink of water, needing to take a second to reorganize himself. Wilson has approached him while he was in the hallway at the water fountain. 

“You did an excellent job reciting your lines just now. Your practice is paying off, but…” he paused for just a moment while Randy looked up to make eye contact. 

“You can’t let your crush on Sharon get in the way of peak performance.” Wilson ended. Randy looked up at him surprised. Crush? No, he didn’t have feelings like that for Sharon, he just– he just– he tried to mentally come up with a reason behind why he froze on stage like that. 

“I don’t have a crush on her. I was just surprised by the scene.” Randy said, his face turning a darker shade of red than it already was. 

“Ah I’m sorry about my assumptions, I didn’t mean to embarrass you. We’ll start with a different scene when you return.” Wilson replied patting Randy on the back and returning to the theater. Randy lingered a little longer in the hallway. Wilson thought he had a crush on Sharon? He’d never considered her as more than a friend. He tried to picture dating her in his head but the thought was hard to imagine. He couldn’t see her as anything more than a castmate, which confused him a bit because she was pretty and nice and any guy in his grade would jump at the chance to date her. He shook the idea away and headed back to the theater now that his face had returned to its normal shade. They started on a different scene without Juliet in it, which allowed him to clear his mind and focus on reading his script. 

——— 

The practice had just ended and everyone was heading home for the evening. 

“Hey Randy can I talk to you for a second?” Sharon called to him. 

“Yeah,” He said as he walked over to her. She pulled him around the corner in order to get some privacy from anyone who might be lingering behind. 

“what’s up?” Randy questioned the odd behavior, though he felt he had no room to judge since he was being weird earlier. 

“I wanted to see if you were okay. Earlier was a little bit awkward, I hope it wasn’t something I said to you before we began the scene.” She said nervously, twiddling the hem of her skirt. 

“Oh no it wasn’t your fault at all, I was just– just a little bit nervous haha.” He shrugged and glanced around. He didn’t really want to have this conversation, especially since he wasn’t sure how he was actually feeling. 

“Oh. I’m sorry Randy. I didn’t realize.” Sharon gave him a sympathetic look but Randy didn’t catch the meaning behind it. 

“Didn’t realize what?” 

“That this would’ve been your first kiss! Of course you wouldn’t want it to be on stage in front of a bunch of people.” She facepalmed as if she should’ve come to this conclusion earlier. Randy’s jaw dropped and he waved his wands in front of him. 

“No, no, no that’s not it. This is not my first kiss. I was nervous for a different reason.” he explained. Sharon glanced down at the floor and bit her lip slightly. 

“So then, if it’s not your first kiss… were you nervous because you have feelings for me?” She asked glancing up and making eye contact with him and seeing him shocked out of mind. 

“I overheard some of the guys saying that you went for the role of Romeo because you wanted to be the one to kiss me.” She quickly added. Randy gapped like a fish out of water. He had to clear this situation up before it got even more out of hand. 

“No! No! I don’t have feelings for you, I took the lead role because I like being in plays.” Randy quickly stated. He felt himself starting to blush again at how quickly this situation is escalating into being awkward. Sharon looked a little heartbroken as she stared at the floor. 

“Oh.” 

“I’m sorry Sharon” 

“It’s ok, but, um, if that's not the reason, why were you so nervous earlier?” Sharon asked curiously trying to not look so sad about Randy not liking her back. Randy now sighed and thought over how he reacted. 

“Oh, that was just uh... momentary stage freight.” Randy threw out, though he knew that wasn’t the reason why. He had been in plays since he was a little kid, he was kind of over the whole stage fright thing. He just couldn't come up with any reason why he would have a problem kissing Sharon. 

“I swear next time we rehearse I won’t make the scene weird." He said trying to put the conversation to an end so she wouldn’t keep questioning him. But instead, Sharon looked at him nervously as her cheeks turned pink. 

"If you want to, we could kiss now so that when the scene comes up it is less awkward." She took a step forward and rested her hand on his arm. Randy was taken back by the suggestion, but when he thought on it there was no reason for why he shouldn't want to kiss Sharon, she was the prettiest girl in his grade and it seemed like she had feelings for him, so maybe giving it a shot was worth it. And anyway, he was going to have to the next time they practiced that scene, so it made sense. 

"Uh sure, yeah, we can now. I mean we'll have to later anyway so," 

"Great!" She replied excitedly, leaning in close to him. She didn’t give Randy any time to coordinate his thoughts as she closed the distance between them. Randy's eyes widened at how quickly she kissed him, but he regained focus and kissed her back. It was over a second later when Sharon leaned back and smiled at him. 

"That was great!" She sighed out happily. She had a dreamy look in her eyes like she was finally glad this moment had happened. Randy, on the other hand, was still stunned. 

"haha yeah," he chuckled out nervously and shrugged. "well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow at practice." Randy waved as he quickly headed towards the exit, leaving Sharon by herself in the theater. Once he was outside walking home he started examining his feelings. He thought that kissing Sharon would help him understand why he couldn’t do so earlier, but it didn’t. He figured if he didn’t like her he would be turned-off from the kiss, but instead kissing her made him feel the same way he did when he kissed his two exes for the first time. His first kiss was with Beth and he had been so nervous to do it, but when it happened he didn’t feel the firework moment everyone says happens. He assumed everyone was exaggerating because he never really felt any emotion when kissing Beth, or his other ex-girlfriend Michelle for that matter. Randy was sure he didn’t have romantic feelings for Sharon, and upon further contemplation, he wasn’t sure if he ever actually liked either of the girls he dated. What am I saying? I dated Beth for months how could I have not liked someone and date them for so long? He thought about his past relationships and how they grew to fruition. He only got crushes on girls once he found out they were interested in him first, knowledge that was passed onto him from his friends. Maybe it was possible he didn’t actually like the people he dated in a romantic way at all. All these thoughts spiraled through his mind and only confused him further. 

He rounded a corner and was then at his house. He pushed the thoughts aside not wanting to think about it anymore since he was only stressing himself out. He also didn’t want to appear like something was bothering him, knowing his mom she’d probably try to get him to talk about it and then give him some crazy phycological opinion. So he played it cool and pretended his day was great. His family believed him just fine and soon he was off to his room in the basement. Being alone though caused the thoughts to return and Randy couldn’t ignore them. 

“So I don’t like Sharon. And I never really liked Beth and Michelle. I never really liked the girls I dated.” He said out loud to himself, solidifying the idea. He didn’t know what conclusions to draw from 

“So I’ve never had a legitimate crush on a girl before. Doesn’t mean I don’t like girls, I just haven’t met one that’s my type.” He tried to reassure himself. He didn’t want to jump to any conclusions or hit any panic buttons yet. “Yeah, they just weren’t my type.” He repeated, convincing himself of the idea. He didn’t want to dwell on it past that so he shut off his lights and went to bed.


	2. Two

The next day at play practice Wilson had spoken to Randy before they started rehearsing and made sure he would be comfortable performing the first romance scene. 

“Yeah that’s fine, I promise I won't ruin the scene this time” he reassured. The kiss with Sharon really helped to prepare him for performing, even if it ultimately made his overall situation worse. He and Sharon took center stage again and recited the lines perfectly as they did the day before. This time when the kiss scene came the two leaned and gave it a quick peck before they continued reading. Randy had not reacted in any way but Sharon’s cheeks had tinted light pink. The rest of the scene went by fast and soon they were on a short break. Randy went to hang out with a few of the guys who played background characters. 

“Randy you’re the man! You’re so lucky getting to kiss Sharon Leibovitz, what’s it like, man?” One of the guys asked as he slapped Randy on the back in a friendly gesture. A few of the guys were gathered around telling Randy how jealous they were. 

“It’s nothing really. Just acting the scene.” He shrugged trying to seem casual. 

“Not only acting, she seems like she likes you. You should ask her out!” The guys were all agreeing and cheering him on. 

“Eh I really only see her as a friend.” He said shutting down the idea. All the guys looked at him like he was crazy. 

“No way! She’s the prettiest girl in our grade, almost all the guys have a crush on her, and you’re saying you only see her as a friend? You’re crazy. And you’re wasting a big opportunity.” One of the guys said, trying to knock some sense into Randy. He frowned slightly and replied, 

“She’s just not my type.” 

“Not your type? Man, she’s everyone’s type! Only a fairy would not be interested in getting with her!” The guy dismissed Randy’s reply with a wave of his hand. Randy’s face started to heat up and he spluttered a response. 

“No, I’m not gay! I just– I have a crush on a different girl!” He defended, making up a lie to get the others off his back. The guys snickered at him and one patted him on the back. 

“I didn’t mean to imply that I thought you were man, we know you’ve dated girls before, it’s just hard to believe someone wouldn’t want to date Sharon.” Relief washed over Randy at hearing that. That would be a horrible rumor to have spreading through his school. Randy Taylor is gay. He can’t imagine the years of torment that would follow if that spread around. In his moment of dwelling on how awful that would be Wilson called the practice back on breaking him out of his thoughts. Practicing his lines would really help clear his mind of all the other thoughts spinning around. 

——— 

Play practice was over now, and Randy was back at home. He sat in the living room and talked to his brother for a while, then in the kitchen with his mom, and later that evening he inquired about the hotrod to his dad, much to his approval. He was doing whatever he could to stay distracted so he wouldn’t have to think about what the guys said earlier. 

Now it was night and he had gone down to his room, where it was too quiet to distract himself from the thoughts. Only a fairy would not be interested in getting with her. Randy, of course, knew this wasn't true, but he couldn’t help but feel personally attacked by what his friend said. "it was a joke, why am I dwelling on it so much?" He asked himself, but he felt like deep down he had a guess as to why. He tried to shake it from his mind, but he just couldn't, the more he thought about the possibility of it being true, the more true it seemed. 'Randy Taylor is gay' he thought again, though when he had the thought at practice it was mocking the idea, now it seemed like it was truer by each passing second. "No, that can't be true, I– I've dated girls before!" He tried to justify himself, but he already came to the conclusion the night before that he never really liked them as more than friends anyway. So what if I've never actually liked a girl before? I've never liked a guy before either? He said to himself, like he came up with a non-contradictory point in an argument. But his satisfaction at the 'check-mate' moment was short-lived as he remembered that he did spend a whole week checking out the boys in his classes butt's that time he was voted best butt as a joke. He remembers not thinking it was weird at all, he was just comparing his own butt, but he did find that lots of the boys in his class did have nicer butts than his own. 

"that was kinda gay" he mumbled to himself, feeling defeated. He rubbed his palms over his eyes trying to sooth the stress he was feeling. He felt so conflicted, he knew it was highly likely that he was gay, but he didn’t want to be. Being gay meant that you were a target for bullying, and no guy would want to be your friend. And what about his family? Would his brothers think he's weird? And would his parents accept him? He didn't worry much about Jill, but what about Tim's approval? His dad has never said anything in support of gay rights, in fact, gay people have been the butt of a few of his jokes before. What if his dad reacted horribly to the idea of having a gay son? Randy couldn't handle the swarm of questions his brain was thinking up. Hell, he couldn’t even handle the idea of being gay. "why do I have to be so unlucky?" He sighed to himself and flopped down on his bed. He was drained and ready to sleep so he crawled under his covers, but he couldn't fall asleep without coming to a conclusion about how he felt. "Randy Taylor is gay." He said as a sort of solemn declaration to himself. Now it was out in the open, and he felt like even if he wanted to take back the realization he couldn’t because it made sense. He sighed to himself and rolled around in his bed, his body aching from the stress it went through today. He shut his eyes and forced himself to go to sleep, he wasn’t going to think about how being gay would affect his life from now on, those were problems to think about on a different day. Just the realization was enough.


End file.
